


In my arms is where you ought to be

by smaragdbird



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Happy Ending, M/M, Misunderstandings, Post-Ant-Man (2015), Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), annoying ex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9509069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Steve liked Scott Lang up until the appearance of Sam's annoying ex (fire breathing annoying ex as it turned out) revealed that Sam and Scott were apparently a couple.Now Steve was just a mess of conflicting emotions who tried not to show how jealous he was since he could've made his move ages ago.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Sam x Steve Gift exchange](https://samstevegiftexchange.tumblr.com/) using the prompt Fake Dating, which I saw and then my mind immediately went, what if Sam fake dates someone else and Steve gets insanely jealous?
> 
> Hope you'll like it :)

„…and then he exploded“, Scott finished his story, drawing a laugh from Sam and the others. Steve’s stomach churned when he heard it. He stood with his back turned to them, ostensibly rising the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

“You’re so weird”, Sam said fondly and Steve’s heart clenched in his chest.

“Considering the use of untested technology he should’ve expected that”, Vision added.

“You’re an untested technology”, Sam pointed out.

After a moment Vision said, “Fair enough”, and earned laughter as well.

Hope van Dyne had come to New York to talk with Pepper about a business proposal now that she was in charge of Pym Enterprises and Scott had tagged along to visit Sam. Steve still wasn’t sure how they had met since every time the topic came up Scott would grin at Sam, Sam would glare back and Scott would make a zipping motion over his lips and change the topic.

Usually to the second time he and Sam had met which involved a guy named Luis, a garden party, Scott’s daughter and a funeral someone called Anthony. It wasn’t that Steve begrudged Sam finding new friends, quite the opposite, but Scott…

Steve had gripped the mug he was rinsing so tight that it shattered into pieces. The conversation from the couch corner stopped for a moment.

“You’re okay over there?” Sam asked, clearly sounding worried to Steve’s vindication.

“Yeah, I’m fine”, Steve replied and threw the splinters into the rubbish. It wasn’t that he minded Scott being Sam’s friend, it was Scott being more than just Sam’s friend that he had a problem with. And for mostly selfish reasons too. 

It had started this afternoon when Scott had wanted to go to New York to buy something for Cassia and Sam had dragged Steve along in case he needed help with dragging Scott away from things in case he got overexcited. Apparently something like this had happened when Sam had been in California and he had not wanted a repeat of that.

/

Steve pushed his baseball cap a little deeper into his face and tried not to look as out of place as he felt. Toy stores weren’t really his thing, but maybe Natasha would appreciate a little plush version of herself or maybe a life-sized cardboard cutout that resembled her only vaguely.

Sam meanwhile stood on the other end of the aisle, openly admiring all the Falcon merchandise. There was a ton of it, too since Falcon was by far the most marketable of the Avengers apart from Steve himself. It was the mix of a very iconic outfit with Sam’s likable personality and family friendly biography, one of Tony’s PR people had explained, that made the Falcon such a hit with, well, everyone.

“Hey Sammy.” A man had appeared next to Sam, white, short blonde hair and slightly taller than Sam but smaller than Steve.

“Eric.” Sam replied in a clipped, cool tone. Steve knew that Sam hated being called Sammy.

“What a surprise. Thought you were in California.”

“Evidently not.”

Steve was about to walk over and help Sam to get rid of the guy who was obviously bothering him when Scott suddenly appeared next to Sam and slipped his arm around his waist. “Hey babe”, he said and kissed Sam. Only then he turned to the guy in front of them. “You again? Are you stalking us?”

The guy scoffed. “Paranoia’s not attractive. You sure you want to go out with this guy, Sammy?”

“As I told you last time, I’m quite happy where I am”; Sam replied coolly. “Good day, Eric.” He turned and walked away, Scott’s arm slipping from his waist. Steve followed him, completely taken aback because since when were Scott and Sam a couple and why hadn’t Sam told him, when Scott said, 

“Pretty sure he is stalking you.”

“Who was that?” Steve asked, concentrating on the issue at hand. If Sam wanted to tell him about his relationship with Scott then he would or so Steve hoped.

“My ex”, Sam replied. “We ran into him when I was in California.”

“Really romantic story, too. Sam saved his life”, Scott added. “Much better than getting beat up –“

“It didn’t work out”, Sam interrupted him, glaring at Scott. 

Scott made a zipping motion over his mouth and wondered out loud if he could get a plush ant made for Cassie, who apparently kept a giant ant as her pet.

Steve raised an eyebrow at Scott’s claim but Sam assured him that she actually did have a dog sized ant living with her.

“It was an accident”, Scott said, “But Cassie likes it so no one turned it back to its proper size.”

“Hey, Sammy!” It was the guy from the store who had followed them out into the parking lot.

Sam took a deep breath before he turned around. “What?”

“You didn’t give me a chance to apologise. I know things didn’t end the best way between us but – “

“Eric, it’s been years. Let it go and leave me alone.” Sam turned back but Eric caught his arm.

“Hey!” Steve reacted before anyone else could. He grabbed Eric’s wrist so that he had to let go of Sam. For a moment they both stared at each other until Eric’s eyes suddenly turned red and Steve felt a searing pain across his palm, making him withdraw his hand.

“I’m much better now, Sammy”, Eric said, his whole skin starting to glow orange. “Better than I ever was.” He turned towards Scott, opening his mouth and Sam only managed to shove Scott aside in the last second before a flame shot from Eric’s mouth to where Scott had been.

His instincts kicked in and Steve pulled Sam with him behind a few cars. His hand was burned where it had touched Eric. “Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Why is your ex breathing fire?”

“Fuck if I know”, Sam said and then turned to Steve with a grin. “But I do have an idea.”

/

Said idea ended with, as Scott had put it, Eric literally exploding in the parking lot, apparently a common side effect when you made an Extremis user angry enough. And Sam had made him angry enough. As Eric’s ex-boyfriend he knew exactly where to hit him emotionally and as an ex-soldier he was just as good in close combat. It had been a thing of beauty.

“How’s your hand?”

Steve nearly dropped the plate he had been rinsing. He had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard Sam stand up and walk over. “Nearly healed”, he said, turning his left hand palm up so that Sam could see it.

Part of him wanted to ask Sam about Scott and why he hadn’t told him about their relationship but the other part of him that respected Sam’s privacy kept him quiet. There was no way he could voice that question neutrally in any way. Steve had just too many, too complicated feelings surrounding Sam and especially surrounding Sam dating someone who was not Steve.

In the one and a half years they had known each other, Steve had made a few attempts to ask Sam out on a date without actually using those words. Hitting on Sam during his morning jog had been the best decision Steve had ever made and yet something had always happened that had kept him from pursuing Sam further. 

First it had been Hydra trying to kill him, then it had been the unsuccessful search for Bucky and then Ultron had happened. And just now when Steve finally thought that everything had calmed down enough for him to ask Sam a third time, he had gone and found someone else.

Really Steve didn’t so much want to ask why Scott and more what about me? And he had no right to do so. If Scott was what Sam wanted then Steve would learn to live with that.

“How’s Scott?” He asked. Being Sam’s boyfriend Scott had been the primary target of Eric’s wrath.

“He’ll live”, Sam replied. “Knowing him he’ll use it to get out of combat training with Hope for a few days. Not that I blame him. Training with her is like training with Natasha except Hope can make her fire ants bite you.”

“Are you going to with them back to California?” Steve asked.

“Why would I?” Sam sounded genuinely surprised by Steve’s question.

“Because you and Scott…”

“Oh, that”, Sam laughed. “Scott and I aren’t dating. We just pretended to, to get rid of Eric when he found me in California.”

Oh. Steve hadn’t felt this particular combination of relief and embarrassment since Howard had explained to him what fondue was.

“So you can stop being jealous”, Sam added with a smirk. “And finally ask me out on that third date we never got around to.”

“You could tell that I’m jealous?” Steve asked. And here he had thought he had done a decent job of hiding it.

Sam grinned. “You were practically green, man.”

For a moment Steve could only look at Sam and felt lost in the shape of his lips and the little gap between his teeth and the deep, dark colour of his eyes. The last time he had felt like this he had been with Peggy and about to jump from a car onto a moving plane.

He already had too many regrets for things he had never done. He didn’t want Sam to be one of those as well, so in a split second decision Steve grabbed Sam with his soapy hands and kissed him. He could feel Sam smile into the kiss before he returned it.

“So uhm”, Steve whispered, his forehead resting against Sam’s. “Do you wanna go on a date with me?”

“Thought you’d never ask.”

Which was a little closer to the truth than Steve was comfortable with but he didn’t have to mention that, did he?

**Author's Note:**

> *cradles falcon mini tsum tsum* moar Falcon merchandise, you hear me Disney?
> 
> (also I know Eric Savin kinda died in Ironman 3 but lets pretend he did not)
> 
> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


End file.
